The former acting head of the Labor Department under the Obama administration said he believes a "misclassification error" in the May jobs report, which may place the real unemployment rate higher than the one touted by President Donald Trump, was not done intentionally to make the White House look better, and defended the Bureau of Labor Statistics as "career professionals."

Trump’s handling of the pandemic received a mixed review from Chase Koch, the president of venture capital firm Koch Disruptive Technologies and son of Charles Koch, the multi-billionaire CEO of Koch Industries and one of the nation’s most influential conservative political donors.

The Trump administration has ordered Marriott International to wind down hotel operations in Communist-run Cuba, a company spokeswoman told Reuters, extinguishing what had been a symbol of the US-Cuban detente.

The Trump administration has ordered Marriott International to wind down hotel operations in Communist-run Cuba, a company spokeswoman told Reuters, extinguishing what had been a symbol of the US-Cuban detente.

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), some forms of Zoloft and its generic sertraline are in short supply due to increased prescriptions and slowed supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Trump administration has ordered Marriott International to wind down hotel operations in Communist-run Cuba, a company spokeswoman told Reuters, extinguishing what had been a symbol of the US-Cuban detente.

The Trump administration has ordered Marriott International to wind down hotel operations in Communist-run Cuba, a company spokeswoman told Reuters, extinguishing what had been a symbol of the US-Cuban detente.

Marriott International, the only US company to run a hotel in Communist-run Cuba, the Four Points Sheraton in Havana, told Reuters it had been ordered by the Trump administration to wind down its operations by August 31.

Changes could hurt communities of color, which are more likely to live with pollution due to decades of environmental racism
The Trump administration continued to weaken core environmental protections in the US by announcing a pair of policies to cut reviews for large infrastructure projects and downplay the health benefits of rules to curb pollution.
Both changes could disproportionately hurt communities of color, which are far more likely to live with pollution because of decades of environmental racism.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said Thursday he will block two of President Donald Trump's nominees from moving forward in the confirmation process until ﻿the administration provides "adequate reasons" for firing the inspectors general of the intelligence community and State Department.

No. 2 Trump spox: "It's almost as though sometimes the media is telling us, 'Shame on you, Donald Trump, shame on you, the administration, for not allowing protesters rioters and looters to come back and finish the job they started.'"

Five companies have now been picked by the Trump administration as the most likely candidates to produce a coronavirus vaccine, The New York Times reports.This comes as part of Operation Warp Speed (OWS), the administration’s national program to accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.Among its other objectives, Operation Warp Speed aims to have substantial quantities of a safe and effective vaccine available for Americans by January 2021.The five companies selected are as follows:Moderna’s (MRNA) mRNA1273 which is currently undergoing Phase 2 trials;A joint collaboration between AstraZeneca (AZN) and Oxford University on AZD1222 which is now in clinical trials at multiple UK sites;Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) which plans to start a Phase 1 clinical trial in September with an ultimate goal of supplying more than one billion doses of its coronavirus vaccine globally;Merck (MRK) which is trying to develop a vaccine using similar technology to its successful Ebola vaccine through a partnership with non-profit research organization IAVI, and;Pfizer (PFE) is working with German drugmaker BioNTech (BNTX) on clinical trials of BNT162, with plans to have a vaccine ready by the end of October, and produce “hundreds of millions” of doses in 2021.GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi did not make the cut.On May 15 Operation Warp Speed revealed plans to select the most promising countermeasure candidates and provide coordinated government support to support their development.Large-scale randomized trials for the demonstration of safety and efficacy will proceed for three to five of the candidates, with as many as 150,000 people vaccinated if all five vaccine candidates reach the Phase 3 stage.Indeed, Congress has directed almost $10 billion to this effort through supplemental funding, including the CARES Act, with $3 billion directed for NIH research.“Vaccines are coming along really well,” President Trump told the Twittersphere on Tuesday. “

The US House Ways and Means Committee said on Wednesday it opposed the Trump administration's plan to expand economic ties to Brazil under the leadership of President Jair Bolsonaro, given its record on human rights and the environment.

(Bloomberg) -- Private-equity firms notched a major win in Washington with the Trump administration paving the way for the industry to tap a massive pot of money that has long been off limits: the trillions of dollars held in Americans’ retirement accounts.The Labor Department issued guidance Wednesday effectively allowing 401(k) plans to invest in buyout firms.

The Trump administration is planning to bar Chinese airlines from flying to the US, Reuters reported on Wednesday.The decision was reportedly made in response to China's refusal to allow US airlines to resume passenger service to Chinese airports."We…conclude that the public interest requires the suspension of all Chinese carrier scheduled passenger air services between the United States and China," read a Wednesday filing by the US Transportation Department.

Transportation department says restriction to start 16 June
US wants Beijing to let American carriers resume flights
The US will bar Chinese passenger carriers from flying to the United States starting on 16 June as it pressures Beijing to allow US air carriers to resume flights, the Trump administration announced on Wednesday.
Related: Warren Buffett dumps US airline stocks, saying 'world has changed' after Covid-19 Continue reading...

(Bloomberg) -- Oil swung between gains and losses as a drop in US crude stockpiles was offset by rising fuel inventories, while uncertainty swirled over the future of output curbs by OPEC and its allies.American gasoline supplies rose to the highest level in more than a month and distillate inventories jumped by the most since January 2019, according to the Energy Information Administration.

President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday barred Chinese passenger carriers from flying to the United States starting on June 16 as it pressures Beijing to let US air carriers resume flights amid simmering tensions between the world's two largest economies.

President Donald Trump's administration said on Wednesday it will bar Chinese passenger carriers from flying to the United States starting on June 16 as it pressures Beijing to allow US air carriers to resume flights.

President Donald Trump's administration said on Wednesday it will bar Chinese passenger carriers from flying to the United States starting on June 16 as it pressures Beijing to allow US air carriers to resume flights.

President Donald Trump's administration plans to bar Chinese passenger carriers from flying to the United States starting in mid-June as it pressures Beijing to allow US air carriers to resume flights, three US and airline officials briefed on the matter told Reuters.

Trump has a history of defying scientific findings but his actions during coronavirus have startled even his most vocal critics
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The early months of Donald Trump’s administration saw its approach to science routinely compared to George W Bush’s – both governments were highly sympathetic to large corporations, distrustful of anything to do with the climate crisis and enthused at the idea of delegating oversight to the states.
Trump’s version may have been more abrasive and bungling but it at least seemed a familiar extension of the last Republican administration.

Officials in the nation’s capital pushed back on an aggressive response by the federal government to demonstrations over the death of George Floyd, with the mayor flatly rejecting a Trump administration proposal for the federal government to take over its police force and one county in Virginia pulling its officers from Washington.

The Trump administration believes ahead of an expected OPEC+ meeting this week that major oil producers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia will honor their pledges to cut crude production and will not damage the global economy by changing course, a senior official said on Tuesday.

US Federal Aviation Administration chief Steve Dickson will testify June 17 before a US Senate panel on certification of the Boeing 737 MAX that was involved in two fatal crashes in five months that killed 346 people.

The Trump administration said this week it will temporarily allow some impurities in alcohol-based hand sanitizer to ensure access to the product during the coronavirus pandemic, reversing course after having tightened restrictions in April.

Drugmaker AbbVie (ABBV) has announced that it has submitted applications for a new indication for Rinvoq (upadacitinib; 15 mg, once daily) for the treatment of adult patients with active psoriatic arthritis.The applications were submitted to both the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA).“Psoriatic arthritis is a complex heterogeneous disease with manifestations across multiple domains, including joints and skin, causing daily pain, fatigue and stiffness,” said Michael Severino of AbbVie.

Aveo Oncology (AVEO) announced that the US Food and Drug Administration approved the New Drug Application (NDA) for its tivozanib used for the treatment of kidney cancer.Tivozanib is the company’s next-generation vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (VEGFR-TKI) targeted for the treatment of relapsed or refractory renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Steve Carell’s new Netflix comedy series is a toothless attempt to ridicule the current administration, failing to be either sharp or entertaining
Plenty of shows have landed glancing blows on the Trump administration, but TV has yet to crown its one true culture-representing Trump show.

A federal judge on Monday defended his decision not to quickly approve the Justice Department's request to dismiss its own criminal case against former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn, saying that the department's reversal was unusual and he wanted to consider the request carefully before ruling on it.

The Internal Revenue Service is failing to crack down on hundreds of thousands of high-income people who owe billions of dollars in taxes, according to a new report by the agency’s government watchdog.The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration identified almost 880,000 individuals making $100,000 a year or more who didn’t file tax returns from 2014 to 2016.

A new United Nations report says that the Taliban assured al Qaeda that it would maintain their close links despite the "peace" deal with the organization which the Trump administration has touted as signifying a break between the Taliban and the terror group responsible for the 9/11 terror attacks.

US President Donald Trump has little choice but to stick with his Phase 1 China trade deal for now despite his anger at Beijing over the coronavirus pandemic, new Hong Kong security rules, and dwindling hopes China can meet US goods purchase targets, people familiar with his administration's deliberations say.

US President Donald Trump has little choice but to stick with his Phase 1 China trade deal despite his anger at Beijing over the coronavirus pandemic, new Hong Kong security rules, and dwindling hopes China can meet US goods purchase targets, people familiar with his administration's deliberations say.

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Five US pharmaceutical companies have been told to recall their versions of a type of diabetes medication after tests found worrying levels of a chemical linked to cancer.Several batches of metformin, which is widely used to reduce excess blood sugar in type 2 diabetes patients, tested positive for unsafe levels of N-Nitrosodimethylamine, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Thursday.

The Trump administration will study ways to safeguard Americans from the risks of investing in Chinese companies, US president Donald Trump said on Friday, ratcheting up pressure on the firms to comply with US accounting and disclosure rules.

Seeking to deter further shipments of Iranian fuel to Venezuela, the Trump administration has quietly warned foreign governments, seaports, shipping companies and insurers that they could face stiff US sanctions if they aid the tanker flotilla, the US envoy on Venezuela told Reuters on Friday.

President Trump announced Friday that the US is "terminating" its relationship with the World Health Organization over its failure to enact reforms in response to the administration's criticisms of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic."Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today be terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs," Trump said at a press conference.The announcement comes after Trump had threatened to cut US funding to the WHO, alleging that the organization had helped China conceal the severity of the initial coronavirus outbreak in the city of Wuhan.

Transcripts of phone calls that played a pivotal role in the Russia investigation were declassified and released Friday, showing that Michael Flynn, as an adviser to then-President-elect Donald Trump, urged Russia's ambassador to be “even-keeled” in response to punitive Obama administration measures, and assured him “we can have a better conversation” about relations between the two countries after Trump became president.

President Donald Trump on Friday ordered his administration to begin the process of eliminating special US treatment for Hong Kong to punish China, but stopped short of an immediate end to the territory's cherished privileges that have helped it remain a global financial center.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday he was ordering his administration to begin the process of eliminating special treatment for Hong Kong to punish China for its plans to impose new security legislation there, a potential bombshell for the territory's status as a global financial center.

The Trump administration will study ways to safeguard Americans from the risks of investing in Chinese companies, US president Donald Trump said on Friday, ratcheting up pressure on the firms to comply with US accounting and disclosure rules.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday he was directing his administration to begin the process of eliminating special treatment for Hong Kong, in response to China's plans to impose new security legislation in the territory.

Seeking to deter further shipments of Iranian fuel to Venezuela, the Trump administration has quietly warned foreign governments, seaports, shipping companies and insurers that they could face stiff US sanctions if they aid the tanker flotilla, the US envoy on Venezuela told Reuters on Friday.

US Democratic lawmakers said on Friday they want to conduct closed-door interviews with officials from President Donald Trump's administration about the surprise firing of State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, and release transcripts to the public.

Rafael Caro Quintero, on FBI’s most wanted list for 1985 murder of a federal agent, said he is too old to work and has no pension
Rafael Caro Quintero, a fugitive Mexican drug lord who is on the FBI’s most wanted list for the murder of a federal agent in 1985, has said in a legal appeal that he has no money, is too old to work and has no pension.
The odd plea was filed on Tuesday by Caro Quintero’s lawyer who are seeking an injunction against his arrest or extradition to the United States for the kidnapping and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special agent Enrique Camarena in Mexico in 1985.

Samantha Power also tells online Hay festival that former US administration underestimated how ‘ripped off’ Americans felt, and discounts possibility of Michelle Obama as vice-president
The US has shown “gross incompetence … at the highest levels” in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Samantha Power, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations under Barack Obama.
Speaking to Philippe Sands for the online version of the Hay festival, Power said that Donald Trump’s administration had failed to learn from the countries hit by the coronavirus before the US.

Former US intelligence officials questioned the Justice Department's naming of a prosecutor to probe the "unmasking" of names in spy-agency eavesdropping reports by Obama administration officials, saying such requests had not previously been treated as criminal matters.

Japanese government advisers proposed on Friday that the administration map out guidelines for how to achieve both the containment of the new coronavirus in the country and a return to economic activity.

The Senate committee chairman who's leading the probe into the origins of the FBI's Russia investigation is asking for broad authorization to issue subpoenas to a number of top former Obama administration officials, including former FBI Director James Comey.

The Trump administration is testing part of the US-Mexico border wall with black coating, a move that comes after President Donald Trump expressed his desire to paint his signature wall black but also could cost an extra $1 million per mile.